Falling to Earth
by Sinom Bre
Summary: A different beginning.
1. Nagareboshi, Part One

**Falling to Earth**

A Ranma ½ Fanfiction  
by  
Sinom Bre

* * *

Chapter One

_Nagareboshi  
(Falling Star)_

* * *

"Well, what do you think, Tendou-san? Will your client approve?"

"Hmmm..." Tendou Nabiki was, admittedly, out of her element. Taking bets on the various goings-on at Furinkan, selling photos, and peddling information were the aspects of her 'business' with which she was most comfortable; negotiating the lease of a six-story office building wasn't. To buy herself a moment more to consider and to project a useful aura of fearlessness, she stepped to the edge of the roof and placed a foot on the twelve-inch high brick riser. Looking down, she could see her sister Akane, waiting on the sidewalk.

This was her father's fault, she mentally swore. Ever ready to volunteer his family's services, Tendou Soun had enlisted his middle daughter's help for an old friend of his who always seemed to get the short end of the stick. In turn, Nabiki had enlisted the help of a classmate whose father was a building inspector. The boy stood off to one side of the building owner, looking down at the tar on the flat roof and scratching the back of his head. Nabiki sighed—no, not her preferred milieu at all.

"Tendou-san?"

The owner startled her a little. "Hai. I think we can do busi—" As she moved the one foot off the raised roof edge and started to pivot her body around on her other foot, the jagged end of a piece of reinforcing steel sticking up from the riser caught the sole of her shoe. The stopped motion of the foot moved up her body and switched directions at the fulcrum created by her hips, and Nabiki began to fall backwards.

Time slowed to a crawl as adrenaline sped up her mental processes. The owner and her classmate began to run forward, but they passed out of sight below her vision as she toppled over the edge, her buttocks briefly smacking against the riser, stopping her rotation and allowing her to fall while continuously looking up. The heads of the owner and then her classmate appeared over the edge, their shrinking eyes wide in horror.

Nabiki's mind entered a state of hyper-awareness and recall. A line of thunderstorms had been advancing across Tokyo, and the moist dustiness of impending rain streamed into Nabiki's nostrils as she passed the sixth floor. The air was charged with the threat of the approaching weather—ionized, cool, bracing, electrifying.

Her clothes billowed upwards, seeming, to Nabiki, to carry away her hard-won distance from life, and moments forgotten rushed forward to smother her. Her mother's smiling face appeared before her, as clear as the day she died.

_"Nabiki-chan, why did you take Akane-chan's ice cream?"_

_"Mine!"_

_Her mother sighed. "Nabiki, you must learn to share. There is happiness for everyone when people share."_

As she passed the fifth floor, Nabiki laughed once, tears beginning to stream from her eyes. Then, a hospital bed; a shrunken, diseased form recumbent beneath the sheets. "Mother..."

_Nabiki stood behind the other members of her family in the cold, sterile room. She was alone, unseen, and spoke to herself in a tiny, unheard voice. "Don't leave me, Mommy. No one loves me but you."_

The fourth floor passed by, and from her depths, a handful of core emotions peered out, blinking in the first light after a decade-long night.

"I don't want to be alone, Mommy. Don't leave me!"

The third floor saw her sobbing aloud. "DON'T LEAVE. I DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE!! MOM—OOF!!"

"Hang on," a drawling male voice said in her ear. "The landin's gonna be a bit rough."

Peripherally, Nabiki saw a black-clad leg shoot out and hit the side of the building, redirecting their motion out and along the side as he ran sideways against the brick. She had a brief glimpse of an untamed mop of black hair, a pigtail whipping out from behind, and cool blue eyes in a handsome face that was taut with concentration.

"Don't leave me..." she whispered, unheard.

The two of them plowed through a canvas awning, landing in the midst of a vegetable cart. Assorted fruits and other comestibles sprayed outwards, and the cart owner cried out and dove away.

Akane, shaking and crying, ran up to find her sister curled up in a strange boy's lap, sobbing into his shirt and her arms tightly wrapped around his neck.

"NABIKI!! Are you ALL RIGHT?!" Akane yelled.

In response, Nabiki said, in between sobs, "Don't leave me!" She clung to him desperately. "Don't leave!!"

The boy's eyes were bulging out of his sockets at the crying bundle of live girl in his lap, and he looked up at Akane in unmitigated panic. "Uh... Uh..."

Akane laughed through her tears. _Well, I guess not _all_ boys are perverts._ She motioned him to put his arms around Nabiki and hold her.

His eyes bulged a little more and his mouth fell open. He then peered down at the curvy girl clinging to him. Jerkily, he slowly closed his arms around her, although he was stiff as a board.

Falling to her knees, Akane mixed more laughter in with her tears.

- - -

Nabiki sat on the curb by the destroyed vegetable stand, her arms around her knees and shivering. Akane sat next to her, rubbing her back. The boy stood in front of them, while the building owner and Nabiki's classmate stood behind, looking on in relief. Ever the business woman, Nabiki had forced her mind to current matters and told the building owner that he had a deal, and then she returned to her shock.

Akane looked up at Nabiki's savior. "Thanks so much! If you hadn't been there... Well..."

"Aw, it was nuthin'... Well, I guess I better get goin'. See ya!"

He started to sprint away, but Akane wasn't having it. "WAIT!"

He stopped and turned around. "Yeah?"

Akane blinked at him. "Uh... What's your name?"

"Saotome Ranma."

"Uh... Hi. I'm Tendou Akane, and this is my sister, Nabiki." She nudged Nabiki, who looked up and shakily said, "H-Hi."

"Hiya," Ranma said. He smiled at her, and the hearts in both girls' chests did flip-flops. It was almost a novel sensation for Nabiki, but perhaps understandable considering the circumstances. "Ya feelin', errr... okay?"

"Heh..." Nabiki rubbed her arms. "I'll live..."

Ranma fidgeted for a moment. "Well... Ja!"

"Wait!" Akane called, and he turned around again. "At least, er, let us, um... reward you somehow!"

"Reward? Um..." His stomach abruptly growled loud enough to be heard by anyone within a fifteen-foot radius. "..."

Akane giggled. "Okay, how about some food?"

"Hey! That'd be GREAT! I'm starved!" _Stupid Pops! Sittin' in jail with the police holdin' our money!_

Getting Nabiki to her feet required Akane to support her, which was well within her strength, but the younger Tendou had other ideas. "Saotome-san, could you, ah, give me a hand? Nabiki's a little... woozy still." She put her mouth to her sister's ear. "If you foul this up, I'm going to disown you. _Lean_ on him."

Startled partway out of her state, Nabiki stared at Akane in incomprehension, but the light abruptly dawned as a strong male arm encircled her waist. His other hand found hers and pulled her arm over his shoulder.

"Okay?" he asked her. She nodded. "Where to?"

Akane motioned forward, and then disengaged herself from Nabiki, leaving Ranma with the job of supporting her. "Hey! Errr... Oh, hell." His stomach was kicking his brain to hurry up, so he hefted her completely off the ground in his arms and followed after Akane. The building owner and Nabiki's schoolmate hesitated and then followed, as well.

Too shaken up to even approach her normal cool attitude, Nabiki blushed, secretly pleased but outwardly embarrassed. Everyone was staring. _It's not everyday a stud carries you around. Enjoy it, girlfriend._ She leaned her head against his bicep and studied his face.

Ranma's eyes flicked down to see her watching him. He reddened a little and glanced down ever so often, occasionally laughing nervously. "Ya sure you're okay?"

"Mmm-hmmmm."

"Ah... Oh."

The small group walked a short way towards an okonomi-yaki yatai down the street. Akane turned around just before reaching the cart, and said, "How's this—Oh, darn!"

The rain that had been threatening them hit without warning. Akane started to turn and dash underneath the cart's awning, but something odd had registered. She stopped, turned completely back, and peered at Nabiki and the redheaded girl holding her. _... Girl?!_ Nabiki was rigid, and the strange girl's head was bowed.

The rain continued, and the entire group stood quietly, the sound of the falling water masking the other, normal noises of the city. After a moment, the girl walked forward and stopped in front of Akane. She held Nabiki out to her, and numbly, Akane took her sister into her arms. The eyes of the two Tendous never left the heart-shaped face framed in blazing, dripping scarlet. The girl looked up finally, winced, and then jumped to the rooftop behind Nabiki and Akane, disappearing as if she'd never existed at all.

Akane had leaned back, her head titled to see the rooftop behind her, and she'd had to step back with one foot to keep her balance. In Akane's arms, Nabiki had been better positioned to see the whole thing.

"Akane-chan?"

"... Hai?"

"Tell me I wasn't dreaming. Saotome-san was a guy and now he's a girl, and he... she just did a standing two-story jump?"

There was brief pause. "He didn't give you to someone else, and I just missed it?" Akane asked.

Now Nabiki paused. "All I can say is that I never changed persons. Take that how you will."

* * *

"Welcome home," Kasumi said, as a bedraggled Nabiki and Akane entered the tearoom. However, those didn't have an opportunity to reply because Tendou Soun, their father, pounced on Nabiki.

"Did it go all right?!" he asked.

"Yes, Daddy, it went fine. Tell your friend we'll meet at eight o'clock on Wednesday at the building to go over the papers."

"Excellent!" Soun hugged Nabiki but quickly drew back. "You're wet."

"We, ah... got caught in the rain."

"Well, go change your clothes and warm yourselves up." He left the tearoom and headed for the phone.

Nabiki and Akane looked at one another and stared.

"I get the feeling there's more to be said," Kasumi observed, a hint of dry humor in her tone.

"Ah..."  
"Ah..."

Nabiki got the nod. "Meet us in your room in ten, Oneechan. Things got a tad... strange."

- - -

"Say that again?" Kasumi blinked at her sisters. They knelt on the floor around a tray with a kettle and assorted items for the making of tea placed upon it.

"Er... We think he turned into a girl," Akane said.

"What caused it?"

"We're not sure," Nabiki said.

Kasumi remained silent for a moment. "Go over it carefully again. He was a guy, and then what happened next?"

"Um, we were walking down the street—" Akane said.

"—and the rain came, and... ..." Nabiki's eyes widened. "The rain? Rain makes him a girl?" She shook her head vigorously. "No, can't be. That's just too weird."

"Well, I don't know..." Kasumi mused. "The timing seems right." She rose from the floor. "Let me make a call. I have an older woman friend who has a friend who has a friend and so on that is fairly knowledgeable about these kinds of things." She began to walk out of the room, but Akane's exclamation stopped her.

"YOU...You believe in this kind of stuff?! In, er, MAGIC?!"

Kasumi smiled at her youngest sister. "Do I? Should I not? Remember your Shakespeare, Akane-chan." She chuckled softly but then locked eyes with Nabiki. "Nabiki-chan, but for the absurdly good fortune of having someone capable of saving you from such a fall at the right place at the right time, we would now be planning a funeral." Her lips drew a line. "For our father's sake, do try to be careful. If any of us passed before him, it would break him completely." She stepped out of the room before Nabiki could acknowledge her sister's words.

A tense silence hung in the air. "Shakespeare?" Akane said querulously, finally breaking the mood.

Nabiki laughed once, stridently. "I, uh... I think I know the one. _Hamlet_."

"Um... Care to share?"

Her composure regained, Nabiki smirked at her. "Read the play. It'll be good for you to do something other than martial arts all the time."

Akane pulled a long face and groaned.

* * *

"Yo, Pops. How's the grub?" Ranma stood outside Genma's cell, looking in at his father, as that worthy appeared to be meditating. It was all Ranma could do not to laugh.

"Not enough of it," Genma said after a suitable pause.

Ranma did laugh at that.

"So what are you doing with yourself, boy?"

"Oh, knockin' around... Caught a girl fallin' off a roof." He winced.

Genma raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"It rained, and I went girl. Didn't stick around for the applause ta start..."

"Ah."

"Speakin' of that, how are they takin' you goin' panda on 'em?"

His father scowled. "They find it very... amusing."

Ranma snickered; his father's dirty gi seemed suspiciously damp. "Just be glad it wasn't a giant raccoon what drowned in that spring, or they'd be dressin' ya up as a good-luck tanuki and makin' ya stand by the front door," he jibed.

"Show some respect, boy!"

"Kinda hard to, Pops, what with you on the wrong side of the bars."

Genma harrumphed.

Leaning against the cell, Ranma chewed on nothing for a moment. "I don't get it, Pops. Why'd you let them take you in? You never done it before."

"Well..." He sighed. "We're going to be staying in Nerima for a while, and it would be better to live here with a clean slate."

"Ooo-kay... You've said that before, so what's so special about Nerima?"

Genma looked at him askance and then closed his eyes, adopting a stony expression. "You'll find out when it's time."

"Feh." Nothing could sour his mood quicker than his father pulling that inscrutable look. "Whatever. _Maybe_ I'll come see ya tomorrow."

"Take care, boy... and keep up your training."

"Yeah."

"And stay away from strange women."

Ranma stared at him for a moment and then shook his head and walked away.

* * *

END CHAPTER ONE

Ranma ½, its characters, and its situations are the property of Takahashi Rumiko, Shonen Sunday Comics, Shogakukan, Kitty TV, and Fuji in Japan. It is distributed in North America by Viz Communications, Inc.


	2. Nagareboshi, Part Two

**Falling to Earth**

A Ranma ½ Fanfiction  
by  
Sinom Bre

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Chapter Two

_Nagareboshi  
(Falling Star)_

_Part Two_

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kasumi came downstairs just as the phone rang. Usually, Nabiki was on the device in a flash, but since Kasumi was standing right next to it, she answered it quickly. "Hai. Tendou residence... Oh, hi, Mari-san. You did?" She listened for a moment. "I see. Interesting. And your friend has seen this? No?" Another pause. "I see. No, I don't actually know this person, but I'll keep it in mind. Thank you ever so much, Mari-san... Yes, Tuesday Tea will be fine. See you then." She hung up the phone and walked into the dining room.

Nabiki lounged at the table, watching the television. She turned and peered up at Kasumi. "Was that your friend you called yesterday?" At her sister's nod, Nabiki shook her head. "Your network's faster than mine. Oh, the shame..." She put the back of one hand to her forehead in mock distress.

Kasumi playfully swatted her with a cup towel. "Behave..."

Smirking, Nabiki said, "So what did you find out?"

"Does the name 'Jusenkyou' mean anything to you?"

"Not a thi—"

"Jusenkyou? I've heard that name before." Soun stood in the hallway, holding the day's paper. He'd startled both girls.

"Daddy, stop walking so softly!" Nabiki groused.

Soun grinned. "The path of a martial artist—"

"—is fraught with peril," both daughters finished for him in unison.

"Hmph! So one must walk quietly and carry a large, rolled-up newspaper!" Soun brandished the paper like a club, and then started poking the girls in the sides with it. "Have at thee!!"

Both girls shrieked. "Scary, Daddy! You're starting to sound like Kunou-chan!" Nabiki said.

Soun stopped. "Who?"

"Oh, right. You haven't had the 'pleasure' yet..." Nabiki shook her head. "Off topic. You know the word 'Jusenkyou'?"

"It's a place, or so I've heard." He took a seat at the table, unrolled the paper, and shook it. "It's an old martial arts legend."

Nabiki and Kasumi looked at one another and then back at their father. "Do tell..." Nabiki said.

"Well, yes, but I just know that it's supposed to be horrible in some way. I don't have any details."

Disappointed, Nabiki sipped her tea, but Kasumi said, "I think I can shed a little more light on the legend." Soun put down his paper, and Nabiki followed suit with her tea. "It seems to be a training ground for aerial combat. My friend Mari-san's friend says there are bamboo poles sticking up from about a hundred or so springs, and trainees are supposed to leap from pole to pole while fighting without falling in."

Soun nodded sagely. "I trained for a while in a similar arrangement under... the..." His pupils shrank to pinpoints, and he shuddered involuntarily.

"Daddy?"  
"Father?"

"Eh?" He shook the sensation off. "Forgive me, girls... Ahem. Now, what were you saying, Kasumi?"

Kasumi gave him one more concerned look. "At any rate, the 'horror' is that the water of the pools is cursed. If you fall in, you take the form of whatever last drowned there."

"Oh, my!" Soun exclaimed.

"Oneechan, was there a pool for girls?"

"I asked, and Mari-san's friend called it Nyanniichuan."

Nabiki frowned. "How does Mari-san's friend know all of this?"

"Her friend's uncle is a martial arts historian and specializes in collecting old tales and legends. She called him up on the phone."

"It's all in who you know," Nabiki said, smirking.

"Bah! All bad news today." Disgruntled, Soun folded up the paper, set it on the table, and then moved out to the backyard to smoke a cigarette.

"So what, if anything, are you going to do?" Kasumi asked quietly.

Resting her chin on her upturned palm, Nabiki tapped her lower lip while staring out the open shoji to the backyard and watching the bit of morning mist still hovering over the koi pond, yet to be burned off by the encroaching line of sunlight. "I don't know..." However, the memory of a loudly growling stomach surfaced, and the middle Tendou daughter smiled on one side of her mouth.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Nerima open market was like an endless buffet if you happened to have the option of going around in the form of a buxom redheaded girl, bursting with healthy beauty. Okay, that might be a bit much, Ranma thought to herself as she made googly eyes at a taiyaki vendor.

"Wow! I bet you make the best taiyaki EVER!" Ranma squealed. She'd made sure earlier that the top three buttons of her shirt were undone and presented for view a calculated amount of cleavage.

The poor vendor, in his mid-twenties or so, never knew what had hit him. "Of course I do!" He threw out his chest at the same time he threw his gaze down Ranma's shirt. "Just try one! You'll see!"

Ranma bit her lip in a fetching manner. "Well, I would, but I guess I have to wait. My allowance ran out." She sighed heavily, causing all manner of interesting movement of brassiere-less flesh underneath her shirt. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched a thin line of drool escape the corner of the young man's mouth. She exaggeratedly sighed again and rubbed along the top of her chest, the late afternoon sunlight causing her alabaster skin to fairly glow.

The vendor, in a daze, held out a white paper bag overflowing with fresh taiyaki. "It's... on the... house... Can I have... your phone number?"

Ranma squealed, jumped up and down, making the vendor's eyes move up and down, and snatched the bag out of his hands. "Thanks, and when I get a phone, I'll be sure to give you the number! Bai-bai!" She scurried away and rapidly moved out of sight of the vendor. Finding a handy bench under a tree, she wasted no time in cramming the first of the sweet bean-jam pastries into her mouth. Alas for her hunger, the sound of slow clapping, caused her to whip her head around. Ranma blanched.

"Bravo... Oh, Braaa-vooo!"

The girl Ranma had saved from a fall the day before slinked over to her bench and sat down. With half a taiyaki stuffed in her mouth, Ranma continued to stare at the smirking girl.

"I haven't seen such a shameless display of feminine 'charm' in a while, and coming from me, that's saying something." She crossed her legs. "Tendou Nabiki, if you remember my name, at your service. While my younger sister, Akane, surely thanked you, I never got the opportunity to do more than get carried around by you, so... Thanks... for saving me."

Ranma stared for a few seconds more before starting to say something, "Mmmf!" and then realizing her mouth was otherwise occupied. She crossed her startling blue eyes on the tail of the taiyaki sticking out of her mouth, and Nabiki laughed, amused at her savior's antics. Ranma bit off the taiyaki, chewed, and swallowed. "Uh... Sure... Tendou-san. No problem," she said, nervous, and looked away, the half-eaten food forgotten in her hand.

"So which one is you?"

Looking back at her, Ranma frowned in confusion. "What?"

"You've been to, ah... What did Kasumi-oneechan call it? Oh, yes! You've been to Jusenkyou, right? So which is the real you? The man or the woman?" She raised an eyebrow. "Although considering your eating habits, the good money's on you being male."

Jaw slack, Ranma said, "How did you...?"

Nabiki smiled a million-yen smile, loving the ability to shock others with knowledge. "Let's just say thaaat... I've got connections and leave it at that."

Ranma blinked several times. "Oh..." she said distantly, trying to figure out how anyone would know someone who knew about a lost training ground of cursed springs without having been there themselves.

A brief silence ensued. "So... which is it?" Nabiki finally asked again, breaking the lull and bringing Ranma out of her study.

"Huh? Oh. Guy. I'm a guy," Ranma said.

"Thought so. You were very comfortable with yourself the other day, and your portrayal of a girl is... stereotypical."

"Steering... What?"

Nabiki sighed. "Not terribly educated, are you..."

"Hey! I know my letters!" Ranma glared.

Holding up her hands, palms forward, Nabiki said, "No offense! No offense! What I meant was that you act like a guy would think a girl acts. Not how they really do." She paused, thinking. "Of course, in a way, that works to your advantage, especially with scoring free food, since you would know exactly how to reduce a man to jelly, being a guy yourself." She put down her hands and smirked at him again.

Ranma worked that notion around in her head for a few seconds and then smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I guess so..." She then frowned again. "Not that I LIKE being a girl, but... Anything goes, right?"

Raising an eyebrow, Nabiki wondered at the word choice, but let it pass. "So where do you live, ah, Saotome-san, was it?"

Finishing off the taiyaki in her hand, Ranma reached into the bag for another and, surprising Nabiki, held it out for the other girl. Nabiki took the hot pastry, smiled at Ranma, and nibbled it. "Delicious."

"Live? Ohhh... Here... There... Wherever Pops drags me."

Nabiki almost dropped the taiyaki. "You live on the street?!"

"What?" It was obvious that Ranma didn't understand what Nabiki meant.

"You're homeless?"

Ranma blinked. "I, er... I don't really know if we have a house or not. Pops never said."

"Ah... Hmmm... Maybe you should start your story from the beginning."

The redhead looked at her in confusion and not a little suspicion. "What for? I mean, why are you so interested?"

"Hello? Remember me falling off that building and you saving me?" Nabiki said, pointing at herself, but the redheaded object of her current curiosity still radiated suspicion, which Nabiki found strangely aggravating. "Is it a crime?" she huffed. "I'm interested, all right?!"

"Sheesh! Okay, okay. Don't get your undies in a twist." Ranma took an exaggerated bite out of another taiyaki, casting sidelong looks at her companion. "'Sides, ya can't be too careful. Ever'body wants somethin'..." She looked off into space at a point somewhere in front of Nabiki, and then turned fully away and scowled. "Can't be too careful, even with your own family," she growled under her breath.

"Well, that's surprisingly cynical, but... I tend to agree," Nabiki said, having quickly lost her irritation through further fascination. This girl was such a study. "I suppose if I were in your shoes, I'd be worried that I was trying to take advantage of you somehow... especially since you are... ah... since you have such an unusual condition."

Ranma actually laughed. "I guess so, but if there's one thing my old stupid panda of a Pop _has_ taught me, it's how to run like hell when things get bad." She turned to Nabiki and unexpectedly speared her with sharp blue eyes and a small feral smile, causing that worthy to take a mental step back. "I can take care of myself and my problems... if I have to."

Nabiki crossed her arms, a purely unconscious defensive action, and studied the other girl. She'd almost written the redhead off as some kind of bumpkin with unusual skill and a most unusual problem, but there was something chilling in her attitude just now. A certain street-wise, or maybe life-wise, hardness lurking underneath. It made this person very interesting to Nabiki, all of a sudden. She uncrossed her arms, but turned such that she faced forward from the bench. "So... Your story?" Nabiki kept herself from looking at Ranma.

"Hmmm... Okay. Easy enough... I guess." Ranma adopted a overly melodramatic tone. "Oh, man! Am I thirsty now or what?" She sighed loudly.

A short stretch of laughter burst from Nabiki. "Not a very subtle performance." She received another weird smile from the girl, albeit decidedly less feral than before. "All right, all right," she said, waving her near hand up and down. "I suppose I'm intrigued enough to pop for a soda. Besides, we'll—rather, _I_ will be more comfortable at a table," she said smugly.

"Great!"

"There's a place just down the mall. Come on..."

- - -

They sat at a wrought-iron table outside of a small café, a pair of cream sodas and a half-full bag of taiyaki in front of them. Both Ranma and Nabiki had eaten another of the pastries and sipped their sodas before Nabiki began their conversation completely off of their previous thread.

"You know, if you'd take your hair out of that pigtail and fluff it out and put on a nice, low-cut dress, you could probably get all the free meals you could stomach. As much as I, being a girl saying this to another, ah, girl, even if you are one only some of the time, you are... stunning, Saotome-san. You're very beautiful."

Nabiki watched, fascinated, as different emotions waged war across Ranma's face, including but not limited to disgust, surprise, pride, and embarrassment.

"Yeah... Well... I do all right." Ranma's blush had crept down from her face and made serious inroads onto the still visible cleavage. She stumbled over her next words. "You're, ah... You, ah... pretty, too."

That had been hard to say for Ranma, socially unskilled as she appeared to be through her speech and actions, and Nabiki recognized it as such. If it had been Kunou-chan expressing the same sentiment, it would've included poetry, endless praise in stilted language, and obsessive stalking. It was almost startling to Nabiki to abruptly realize how much more meaningful Ranma's few words were in comparison. She smiled broadly at the redhead. "Thanks, Saotome-san. I wasn't fishing for a compliment, odd as that is for me, so it was sweet of you to say so."

"Ranma."

"... What?"

"Call me Ranma. I keep lookin' around for Pops when you call me Saotome-san."

"Okay, Ranma-chan." Nabiki realized her mistake immediately after using the diminutive honorific usually reserved for use between girls, but another surprise awaited Nabiki when Ranma seemed to drift a million miles away. "Ranma? Okay there?"

"Ranchan..." Ranma said, still distant. "Ucchan..."

Nabiki blinked. "Ucchan? What?"

Coming to herself, Ranma blushed again. "Sorry. I was thinking of an old friend I had when I was six. Ucchan. He called me Ranchan. Wow. I hadn't thought of Ucchan in a while."

"Ranchan." Nabiki tried the feel and sound of that out, thinking. Ranma had looked up at her quickly, though, apparently startled. "Ah! Sorry. That was presumptuous of me."

"Er, no! No... It just... surprised me, that's all." Ranma smiled shyly. "It sounded pretty good, actually. I, er... I don't mind... Nabiki-chan."

She fought it! Oh, how she fought it! Alas, her cheeks pinked, anyway. Nabiki coughed once... twice. "Right. Turn about and all that... Ahem!"

Ranma laughed a carefree laugh, blue eyes sparkling, and Nabiki understood down to her bones that it was a fine thing that she wasn't male and that she wasn't easily swayed in her emotions by others. She was quickly coming to realize that the girl... the _person_ across from her was almost a force of Nature. Everything about her was powerful. Her skill as a martial artist, evidenced by Nabiki's continuing good health against what should have been impossible odds. Her feelings; pure, honest. Her laughter. And that voice! That slight whiskey rasp and clear tone. It was dead sexy. And more to the point in Nabiki's mind, there was gold in that girl's voice! Nabiki entertained a brief fantasy of managing an idol-star and voice-actress Ranma's career. She shook that thought loose and returned to the present and to presently important topics.

"Okay, Ranchan. Time to pay for the soda. What's your story?"

"Well... Nachan..." Nabiki scowled, causing Ranma to chuckle again. "It's pretty boring until I was six. Pops took me on a training journey that is still going on, although he's said we're staying in Nerima... for a while at least. He still hasn't said why." Ranma trailed off, frowning.

Nabiki frowned, as well. "Where _is_ your father, anyway? Did he just dump you here or what?"

Ranma rolled her eyes. "One thing you gotta understand about Pops... He ain't the most honest person around. Let's just say he's coolin' his heels for a little while 'cause he took some food that didn't belong to him."

"I... _see_..." Nabiki said slowly. This put an entirely different spin on things, and Nabiki found herself becoming grounded over the topic of Ranma very quickly. "And has your apple fallen far from the parental tree?"

"Uh... What? My apple?"

Nabiki sighed. "Did you spend any of that training journey in school?"

"Uh... Sometimes. Mostly when the local truant officers caught me. But Pops'd pull up stakes and move on most of the time right after that. Pop learnt me my letters, but mostly, we trained. Why?"

Nabiki pursed her lips. Lack of education was a problem—a big one. Nabiki felt her fascination concerning Ranma sag even more. "That's... complicated. Can we come back to it another time?" Ranma shrugged her acceptance, so Nabiki continued. "No, what I was really asking about with the, ah, apple, ah, phrase... is whether you consider yourself honest or do you think you're like your father?"

A red eyebrow rose. "Awful personal question."

A brown eyebrow matched. "I like knowing things."

"In other words, you're nosy."

A practiced smirk was all Ranma received in answer, so she dug another taiyaki out of the bag and ate quietly for a moment, watching people walk up and down the shopping district mall. She polished off her pastry and took a long pull from her soda before leaning back in her chair and focusing on Nabiki.

"Have you ever been hungry?"

Nabiki blinked a few times at the question. "Well... sure, I—"

Ranma cut her off with a raised finger. "No, I'm not talkin' about 'Is supper ready, yet?' hungry. I mean when ya haven't had anything ta eat for more'n two days except a few wild berries or whatnot. When you're so hungry, your belly hurts bad all the time."

"Um... No."

The redhead nodded. "That's great, really. I'm glad you don't know what that's like. I _do_ know what it's like. Been there two or three times... and I stole food to survive." She absently fingered the tie on her pigtail. "And I'm not sorry I stole that food." She sighed and put her hand on the table and drummed her fingers. "But I've stolen food when I wasn't so hungry, too. My Pop thinks stealin' is great trainin'."

"Training for what?" Nabiki crossed her arms. "Becoming a thief?"

"Well... Not exactly. Pops is probably what you'd call a thief, but I don't like it much. No, Pops thinks it's the situations that thievin' puts you in that's great trainin'. Personally, I think he likes thievin' too much ta stop. Pops is allergic to gettin' a job, and when he does get one, he just gripes about it the whole time and can't wait until he's done and we can move on." Ranma laughed suddenly. "Kinda funny, though. Ever since I got this girl curse, I haven't had to do any thievin'. I can score food just about anywhere. I reckon there's some good that's come out of it all."

Nabiki took her turn at watching the passers-by, giving herself time to digest this newest information about Ranma. After a few moments, she took note of an old man in ragged clothing, standing to one side of the foot traffic and holding out a hand to the pedestrians, bowing ever so often. He went largely ignored. She shuddered, realizing that the slide into poverty was never as far of a distance or took as long as one imagined. It was one of the many reasons she was so in love with cold, hard cash.

"Did you ever steal money?" she asked, abruptly.

Ranma had been busy polishing off the last taiyaki. "Eh? Once. Didn't get ta do anything with it, though..."

"Why not?"

"Pops took it away from me and spent it on sake. Never bothered with takin' money again. Same thing always happens—it gets spent on booze. With food, at least, I could eat my fill before Pops scarfed it all."

Nabiki rubbed her eyes. Yes, there had been... Well, to be fair, she thought, there _was still_ something about Ranma that drew her in, even several things, perhaps, because Ranma was nothing if not personable and cute and strong and many other things, but at the same time, there was so much about her... him, rather, that Nabiki wanted no part of; ignorance, thievery, and, it seemed by all indications, a long-standing indigent lifestyle. She was no stranger to the kind of life led by martial artists, and she knew that many practitioners did leave on long-term training voyages, but without fail, they all came from _somewhere_, they all called _someplace_ home. Ranma probably did come from somewhere, had something that stood for home, too, but it was suspicious that Ranma had no knowledge of it and suspicious in the extreme that the jailed father had, rather pointedly, omitted any knowledge of that important somewhere to his child. There were also thinly-veiled hints of casual cruelty and borderline criminal negligence on the part of the jailed father, at least by the standards by which Nabiki had grown to judge such things, and this engendered a whole other list of don't-see-hear-or-say issues in Ranma's life. All manner of warning bells clanged in Nabiki's head.

Tendou Nabiki was going places in the world. After high school, there was university, and she fully intended to get into Tokyo University or at least one of the upper level colleges, and to that end, she studied fiercely. It was, after all, only another year and some months until the university exams. If she could manage that, she'd be set. And there was much to be done, much to be considered, and, very much to the _current_ point, contacts and references to be cultivated on her way to her goal. People who lived from moment to moment, from hand to mouth, had no place in that scheme, as friend or even as acquaintance. They were, simply put, of absolutely no use to her. Nabiki made up her mind.

She abruptly straightened in her chair, and pointedly checked her watch. "Sorry, but there's somewhere I need to be, shortly," she said in a dismissive tone. She found Ranma had been watching her, and the redhead's eyes noticeably dulled at her announcement. Despite her resolve, Nabiki felt a pang of something rare shoot through her heart, but she squashed it ruthlessly. "Thanks again for what you did for me." She stood and bowed slightly to Ranma.

"It was nothing, Tendou-san," Ranma said quietly.

Nabiki nodded to Ranma once and then left, not noticing until much later Ranma's sudden formality.

- - -

Ranma sat at the table for another hour, relishing the all-too-brief friendship she'd experienced with Nabiki, wallowing in grief for its all-too-sudden ending. Ah, no. Perhaps friendship had been too strong of a word; a brief instance of companionship was more like it. Nabiki had bothered to seek him out and, like a falling star, briefly re-entered his life, leading a brilliant fire-trail of a possible, potential friendship but then dying out before reaching ground. Ranma had had no illusions about the other girl's thoughts before she left. Ranma was, for all intents and purposes, ronin. Penniless. Less than scum. Perhaps the only reason she'd been given any consideration at all from Nabiki was because Ranma had saved her life, but it wasn't enough. It was never enough. First Ucchan... then Ryouga. And since, no one.

Finally leaving the table and merging into the crowd, Ranma made for the local park where her pack was hidden. She didn't really feel like putting up with her Pop today, and she felt a great need for solitude, for it was in solitude, she knew from long experience, away from the distraction of other people, that one could most easily despise one's life.

* * *

END CHAPTER TWO 

Ranma ½, its characters, and its situations are the property of Takahashi Rumiko, Shonen Sunday Comics, Shogakukan, Kitty TV, and Fuji in Japan. It is distributed in North America by Viz Communications, Inc.


	3. Chakudan, Part One

**_Falling to Earth_**

A _Ranma ½_ Fanfiction  
by  
Sinom Bre

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Chapter Three

_Chakudan  
(Impact)_

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Kasumi watched Nabiki. Something gnawed at the older of her two younger sisters and had been doing so for two days. After Kasumi had heard from her friend concerning Jusenkyou on Wednesday morning, Nabiki had left for school but had come home after school almost an hour later than usual. She seemed all right at the time, but as the evening wore on, Nabiki's mood had slowly faltered for some inexplicable reason, although Kasumi entertained a half-formed suspicion.

The next morning, Nabiki had again seemed in regular spirits, had gone to school, and returned, but again, as the evening wore on, she seemed to fall into a mild depression. Oh, if anyone spoke to her, she seemed quite herself, but it was in unguarded moments that she lost her usual spark and either brooded or stared into space. Kasumi held her peace, but when she saw the pattern repeat itself on Friday and when she saw that even Akane, who was not nearly so sensitive to Nabiki's little signs, had noticed, she knew that something was seriously upsetting her normally unflappable sibling.

After the evening meal and the clean up, Kasumi prepared a tea tray and carried it out of the kitchen to the dining room, where Nabiki and her father desultorily watched what appeared to be one of those popular cooking show contests on the television and Akane made heavy weather of some homework at the other end of the table.

"Nabiki-chan, Akane-chan, would you join me in my room for a bit?" she asked.

Her two sisters looked up, surprised. Sisterly meetings weren't unheard of, but they'd just had one three days prior.

Soun, however, just smiled at them. "Ah, more secret girl talk is it?"

Kasumi smiled rosily at him—sometimes she just loved him to bits—but her smile turned a little mischievous. "Why, yes, Father, although I could loan you an apron and you could join us..."

Reddening slightly, Soun shifted uneasily and harrumphed, while Akane and Nabiki grinned at him.

"We'd have to shave off that mustache, Daddy, but it could be fun," Nabiki joked.

"I think I'll just stick with Iron Chef, if you don't mind," he said, smilingly slightly and finding the humor in the situation.

"Well, if you're sure..." Kasumi left the question hanging.

"Ahem! Quite."

"Then come along, ladies. Sinister female secrets await." Kasumi led a procession of giggling girls down the hall and up the stairs. Soun chuckled and turned back to his show.

- - -

Akane quickly nabbed a cookie once Kasumi had set the tea tray down on the floor of her room. "What's on your mind, Oneechan?" she asked.

Waiting to reply, Kasumi poured tea for Akane and Nabiki, and Akane returned the gesture by pouring for Kasumi. The eldest smiled and nodded at Akane in appreciation of the common courtesy, many times all too lacking with people. Nabiki just rather sat there, looking only half-interested and still somewhat dull.

"Well..." Kasumi finally began, "to be honest, I don't know what's wrong, but I was hoping Nabiki would enlighten us."

It took Nabiki a couple of seconds to register Kasumi's statement before she jumped. Whatever this confab was to be about, this she hadn't been expecting at all. "... What? About what?" She tore through her mind, looking for anything that might have been going on that related to the family. "We're all good, as far as I know." She frowned slightly. "Or has Daddy gone and done something silly again that I haven't heard about?"

"No, Nabiki." Kasumi sighed. "It's you that I'm concerned about."

"... Me?!" Nabiki was completely at sea, and it showed in her expression, as she looked quickly back and forth between Kasumi and Akane.

"Yes, you." Kasumi paused, pursing her lips and choosing her words, although in this case it wasn't for sensitivity. "You saw him Wednesday after school, didn't you..."

It was remarkable to Kasumi and, frankly, staggering to Akane to see Nabiki's emotions writ so plainly upon her face, in her posture, and from the frantic movement of her hands. "I! That is... I didn't... ... ..." Nabiki wilted. "Oh, freaking crap," she muttered, looking away from her sisters.

"Nabiki!" Kasumi scolded, but Akane burst into laughter.

"No denying it now, Oneechan," Akane said, still laughing. "So did you make any time with the hunky guy who saved you in a romantic, daring rescue against impossible odds?"

Kasumi looked at Akane with her mouth slightly open, and even Nabiki had to crack a weak smile at her older sister's reaction and Akane's sudden attack of melodrama. "Well... Truthfully, he was a she at the time. The whole time... And you wouldn't believe what I caught him, er... _her_ doing."

"What?" Akane asked.

"I saw her put on one of the worst cutesy acts I've ever seen to scam some free taiyaki from a young guy running a cart. The weird thing is it worked like a charm. She had him wrapped around her little finger, big toe, and anything else you can imagine. Poor guy probably took an hour to recover. It was quite a performance, made even more amazing by how well it actually worked."

Akane scowled by this point. "So he's a pervert, after all?"

Rolling her eyes, Nabiki just shook her head. "No, Akane, not like that at all. Must anything even slightly left of center be perverted to you?" Akane huffed. "No, Akane, he seems to treat turning into a girl like, uh... like you would putting a bow in your hair... or deciding to put on a necklace. It's like an accessory... or maybe a tool, more like."

Still scowling, Akane shook her head in incomprehension. A tool? Tools with regard to gender flipping certainly _sounded_ perverted to her.

"A tool?" Kasumi asked. "A tool for what?"

Nabiki sighed, losing her humor completely. "And that's the rub. The why of it, I mean. It's a tool to get food. Otherwise, I think he'd starve... or have to steal, and he claims that while he has stolen food, he doesn't like having to do it."

The other women digested that for a moment. "It sounds like his is a complicated story," Kasumi finally noted. Akane thought it might still be considered stealing, but she was having a hard time working out the ethical mechanics behind the idea.

"Yes... and no." Nabiki looked down and ran her hand along the tatami floor covering, feeling the texture of the weave on her fingertips while collecting her thoughts. "It depends on how you choose to look at it, I suppose. Depends on what your take on it is, on what you expect to take away from it.

"In one sense, his story is very simple. His father, who happens to be in jail at the moment for an unspecified length of time for food theft, has hauled him around on a martial arts training journey since he could walk, practically, and now they are in Nerima for some reason his father won't tell, or won't until he gets out of jail, apparently. They may very well be homeless, although he doesn't know anything about that either. Seems the father plays his cards close to the chest in everything. And so Ranma-kun is just knocking around until he finds out, one way or the other. End of story.

"It's simple because I thanked him for what he did and left. It's simple because I've got no use for a pair of itinerant martial artists in my life and in my plans, one of which is a convicted thief and the other a reluctant thief with permanent gender flux. End of story."

She reached up and played with some of her hair by her chin. "It sounds complicated at first blush, but I guess it's really simple when you lay it out like that." She scowled at something only she could see. "Simple for me, anyway." Nabiki crossed her arms and looked away, radiating defense of her thoughts and conclusions.

Akane struggled with everything Nabiki had said. It sounded like her sister had the matter neatly wrapped up, but something nagged at her that it was truly more complicated and was so in ways Akane couldn't recognize. Kasumi, on the other hand, had no such difficulties driving straight to the heart of the matter.

"You like him, don't you?" Kasumi declared, setting down her own tea and crossing her arms, albeit not as a gesture of defense but as one of certainty. "In spite of all that you've said is wrong, you still like him."

Nabiki said nothing, which spoke volumes, and Kasumi went on, uncharacteristically relentless. "I know you, sister. You have some of the highest standards in friends and acquaintances of anyone I know. For you to be this out-of-sorts, there must be something else going on here. Please tell us? Akane-chan and I care for you very much, and we'd like to help you with this trouble... and I feel like... you perhaps aren't being, mmm... entirely honest with yourself about some part of this."

Nabiki stayed silent, as did Akane, as that one felt she was still in more than a little over her head, but Nabiki eventually broke her posture, sighed, and leaned back with her hands on the floor behind her, supporting her.

"You just had to be there, Oneechan. Some people are just... _there_. Do you know what I mean?" She gestured helplessly. "They have... I don't know... power in them. You can feel it when you're around them that you are around them... Bah!" She brought up one hand to rake through her hair and then pull down her face. "That makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, it's not power like what Akane and I saw at the building, but like they're... bigger than life in even the smallest of things. When she laughs, the world laughs. When she cries, the world cries. She... He has... ... ... _presence!_ Yes, that's the word, and it's like being next to a bonfire you can't see or touch, but you damn well feel it!"

Groaning, Nabiki leaned back forward and dumped her arms into her lap. Her helmet-cut hair swept forward to partially hide her face, as she went on in a different vein. "And _there_ she is! Dirt poor! Sometimes a thief, and nothing and no education to her... damn! Nothing to _his_ name!" She barked one strained laugh. "And the oddest thing keeps popping up in my head when I think about him, as if I can seem to stop thinking about him at all. I keep thinking what an _incredible_ person she could have been under other circumstances. A genius? A world leader? Novelist? Business Tycoon? Like her presence, I can just feel potential coming off of her—ARGH! Him! _Him!_ I can feel it coming off in _waves!_ Half of me wants to grab him, her, _whatever_ and make it all better and show him a bigger, better world! And half of me wants to stay the hell away from everything he represents, everything that's so fundamentally wrong with his life! I... I just don't know what I _want!!_ What to _do!!_"

Both of Nabiki's sisters were shocked at the uncharacteristic emotion displayed by her and how she became increasingly strident as she went along. None of the three commented but rather sipped their tea and nibbled their cookies and thinking, absorbing, digesting.

As Kasumi mulled over Nabiki's words, one aspect of her attention was focused on the sudden, surprising changes in Nabiki's behavior, but another part of Kasumi was entirely unsurprised. That part had, in fact, known this or something along these lines was coming for a long time. Nabiki was, not to put too fine a point on it, a list maker. She knew what she wanted and had mile-long stacks of bullet points that had to be met before she would accept a thing... or a person. The problem, Kasumi knew, is that it truly only took one right person, one special person to send that scheme happily laughing out of the window, and the trick now was getting her sister to see that it wasn't a bad thing. Some lucky people managed to move beyond the list stage, managed to unbend and accept that good things can and did happen outside of checked-off lists, amazing, wonderful things even; unlucky ones did not. Which would Nabiki be?

"One thing is clear," Kasumi said, and the other two focused on her. "She... Sorry, he... No, let's say it right. Ranma-kun made an impact on you, Nabiki. A strong one. One that has you questioning your rules about how your world works and is supposed to be. Questioning your rules about how to live your life."

She paused and delicately massaged her lower lip between her teeth. "I suppose... there could be some residual, er... fascination? I'm not sure if that's the word I want to use, but there could be some fascination from you involved, since he did save you from, ah... Since he did save you." None of them wanted to actually put into words that Nabiki should have died that day.

"I know, Oneechan," Nabiki said, "and that thought has occurred to me, but... it's hard to separate it out from other feelings right now."

"Yes, I can see that, but it could also be that you're worrying about it too much. Trying too hard to make him fit your life view."

Nabiki frowned. "I understand your meaning, but I'm not sure to which part of this you're applying it."

"You'll have to pardon me, Nabiki-chan. This isn't easy to verbalize." Kasumi smiled gently. "It's all about feelings, and feelings are always... messy." That earned a snort from Nabiki, but Kasumi forged on. "I suppose what I'm trying to say is that you're trying too hard to make him fit into your world and not giving it, be it friendship or otherwise, a chance to breathe and find its own fit."

"I... I, uh... Hmmm. Again, I understand, mostly, but could you be a little clearer, Oneechan?"

"Not everyone fits neatly into our little molds or pigeon holes, you know. And if you limit yourself to only those people who _do_ fit neatly, you may miss something special. Truly wonderful friendships _evolve_, Nabiki; they don't just happen, usually. True friendship means knowing and yet accepting another's faults. While I will admit that some of what you told me about him is disturbing and that caution is advisable, the fact that it's bothering you as much as it is tells me that you are unhappy with your decision concerning a possible friendship with him. I think, deep in your heart, you know that just because he doesn't fit your pigeon holes you are not, as they say, giving him a fair shake."

Nabiki sat still, thinking about Kasumi's words.

"Nothing is written in stone on this," Kasumi continued, "and it may come to pass that nothing comes to pass, as it were, but at least you'll then be certain that it had nothing to do with cutting it down before it had a chance to live." She put down her cup of tea and laced her fingers together in her lap. "In other words, my dear sister, to use terms that you can easily identify with, it's a gamble, and right now it's one with very little to lose and possibly much to gain, even if you feel it's remote. The odds will shift somewhat the longer it goes on, but for right now... what have you got to lose?"

Kasumi refreshed everyone's tea, and let her sisters think over what she'd said. Their father's laughter carried up through the floor.

"You do know," Kasumi finally said, "that Father was a poor, itinerant martial artist before he married Mother. Something to remember."

Nabiki smiled crookedly. "All right, all right. You sold me. I suppose I could give it another chance and see how, ah... the odds run."

Kasumi beamed at her, and then she smiled conspiratorially. "Tomorrow is an off Saturday from school, and it's still more than two hours before dark..." She let the suggestion hang in the air.

Shaking her head and chuckling, Nabiki got up, hugged her sister, and left the room.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Nothin' doin', Pops. You peeved the wrong guys, this time, and they ain't budgin'. You're gonna have ta sit this out the full month, and there's three weeks ta go." Ranma rubbed his nose and then placed his hands on the crossbars of the jail cell door. The metal was uneven to the touch, layers of drab gray paint over old pits and scorings of rust. "Maybe you'd better be glad they ain't gonna ship you off to the prefectural prison and just count your blessings."

"I can't believe you couldn't cajole them into lessening the charges or even dropping them altogether," Genma intoned from his seated position in half-lotus in the middle of his cell floor. "I taught you better than that!"

Ranma rubbed a tired hand down his face; taught him better his ass. "Taught me what for shit like this? All you taught was to run like hell and move on to the next town! I don't remember nothin' about no Saotome Technique of Gettin' Charges Dropped! Been holdin' out of me, Oyaji?! I doubt it. I doubt talkin' folks down is any part of your trainin' either, so just clam up about teachin' me better'n that!" In the two days since he'd been raised to heaven and dropped to hell over his possible and then failed friend, Nabiki, Ranma had been going around and quietly speaking with the angry owners and proprietors of Nerima food shops concerning Genma's jail sentence and making zero progress. And he'd found out why.

"Face it, Pops. Even if you didn't know it, you put your foot in it this time. There's been a rash of 'lifters, and they all put in cameras to watch out for it. They got you dead to rights, and between the three of 'em that got you on tape, they figure you gobbled about 250,000 yen of food. And you're lucky you don't have a rap sheet here, Pops. Them owners were pushin' for a year at the prefectural prison, and that place ain't no picnic from what I hear outta the cops here. But since you were a first offender to the judge, he gave you an easy month of just squattin' in the local jail. The prison woulda had ya chained to a gang and buildin' roads all day or somethin'! So like I said, count your damned blessin's and shut the hell up about it!"

Genma said nothing, as he continued sitting with an inscrutable demeanor, and Ranma's aggravation with his father just seemed to climb another level since this whole Nerima escapade started. He knew that his father could've evaded capture with laughable ease, but he didn't. He went quietly! That was so... _wrong_ for the man that was his father. Leopards don't change their spots, and it made Ranma uneasy and highly suspicious.

The silence between them had hung for almost a full minute, and Ranma wrinkled his nose. The air of the jail was pungent with the odor of bleach, but it didn't effectively mask the underlay of stale sweat and urine, and it was starting to get to him. Ranma caught a further whiff of something that smelled suspiciously like old vomit.

"Are you keeping up your training?" Genma finally growled, moving on from the previous subject.

"Yeah, Pops." Ranma sighed at the constant single-track of his father's mind but then peered through the bars. "And are you?" he jabbed, crankily.

"Never you mind about me. You just watch yourself, boy. Don't get caught up in anyone's schemes—"

Ranma, feeling particularly uncharitable towards Genma at the moment, thought his father probably meant any but his own schemes, but he declined to voice this opinion and made a point of looking away.

"—and stay away from women," Genma finished.

And Ranma made a point of looking back. This was twice... Well, twice in the jail, but something like nine or ten times total that his father had pointedly exhorted him in one fashion or another to steer clear of the opposite sex. Sure, the old man didn't think much of women, on the whole (and Ranma filed that thought away with a neon label to be revisited again in detail with regard to his curse), and he didn't have much use for them as martial artists, but this was something else entirely. The second Genma had crossed the border into Tokyo, this new, harsher attitude had suddenly popped out from the man's head fully formed as if well-aged and fully considered, and Ranma could no more glance at anyone female and more attractive than a hippo without Genma landing on him about it. And it wasn't as if Ranma had given his father any prior cause for concern, as he had largely ignored girls and concentrated on his art as he was raised to do.

He narrowed his eyes at his father. To further enhance his already high suspicion, it was becoming plain that this new attitude and the as-yet-unsaid reason for their prolonged stay in Nerima were connected somehow, and Ranma was sure that Genma had been just about to drop whatever this bomb was on him when the police showed up right after they crossed into the ward. Damn the old man. Of course, it started raining not two minutes later, and the police were wondering where the handcuffed panda had come from. It had taken Ranma an hour and about seven demonstrations of both curses before they finally took Genma off to plead his case before the judge. Genma had clammed up on the Nerima matter after sentencing, and Ranma had wanted to strangle him and then only after a sound thrashing. For now, he doubted he could drag the answer out of the stubborn and secretive panda-man with a team of elephants. That didn't mean, however, that he couldn't wind him up about it and hope for a slip.

"Yeah, whatever, Pops," Ranma said casually, crossing his arms behind his head, leaning against the corner of the cell, and looking up at the moldy ceiling. "You're in there, and I'm out here, and there's a whole sea of ladies just waitin' for me ta—"

"You _heard_ me, boy."

"Yeah, right. Like you didn't visit a soap house or forty since we've been on the road." He turned the screws on his father a little tighter. "Hey, I might just be able ta scrape up enough yen to get into one of the cheaper ones. Maybe she'll take a likin' to me, and we can set up house for a while and—"

"BOY!" Genma hopped to his feet, fists clenched. "You will NOT disobey me in this!"

"Damn it, old man!" Ranma spun and fell into a combat stance, facing his father through the bars. "Then give me a _reason!_ I'm sick up ta _here_—" He made a chopping motion at his neck. "—with you not tellin' me shit before it's too late, an' it's all 'cause it always ends up shittin' on _me!_"

His father dropped his tense stance, turned, and sat back down on the floor with his back to the door and his son. "You heard me. That is all I have to say on the matter." Genma crossed his arms and closed his eyes, tilting his up head slightly.

A kick rattled the iron-bar door behind Genma hard enough to cause embedded steel bolts to grind in the concrete divider walls and flakes of that drab paint to drift off the bars to the floor. Genma continued his silence, but a large drop of sweat formed on the back of his head.

A uniformed officer leaned into the corridor from the connecting office further up. "Oi! What's all the racket?"

"Sorry, Sir," Ranma said, never taking his eyes off the back of his father's head. "A panda was bein' a pain in the—"

"Son," the officer interrupted, not unkindly, "watch your language. And it's almost nine in the evening. Time to say your goodbyes."

"Uh... Right." He gave his father one last scowl, scuffing one slippered foot on the gritty concrete of the floor in agitation, like a bull preparing to charge but restrained from doing so. "See ya, Pops... in _three weeks_," he growled and padded down the corridor, but he threw some last words over his shoulder just before passing through the door to the cell corridor. Taunting was, after all, part and parcel of the Anything Goes style. "Got girls ta see and skirts ta chase, old man!"

The metal door shut with a clank, cutting off another round of ranting from Genma. Experiencing an uncomfortable mixture of satisfaction and irritation, Ranma breathed out noisily, plopped into a second chair next to the jailer's desk, and put his head in his hands. He really needed to think about what his old man had up his sleeve about Nerima.

The officer acting as jailer for the shift sat back down and studied the aggravated young man before him. "Spot of tea, son? Or a soda, maybe?" he asked.

Ranma quickly looked up, surprised at the offer. "Er... Tea, I guess. Don't much care for soda. Thanks."

There had already been an electric kettle heating on the desk, and the officer spooned some tea into a pot and filled it with hot water. "That's odd. Most kids can't get enough soda. It's all they drink, nowadays."

"Huh. Didn't know that."

The older man eyed Ranma for the strange response to his comment but declined to address it. They waited the requisite three minutes or so for the green tea to steep, and the officer poured mugs for the both of them.

"Thanks," Ranma said, warming his hands and enjoying the steam and aroma rising from his beverage.

"I know what it's like," he said archly, instead of acknowledging Ranma's appreciation. "My father and I had it out many, many times when I was your age. He wanted me to follow him into the company he worked for, but I had stars in my eyes about being a famous police detective." He laughed. "Neither of us got what we wanted in the end, it seems, but that's life."

"So you're not a detective?"

"Ha! No. Very few of us grunts get the chance to advance that far in the force. If I make patrol sergeant before I retire, I'll be doing good."

"Huh." Ranma took a tentative sip of his scalding tea. "So what did your pop do at that company?"

"Assembly line work for a car manufacturer." Ranma just looked at him blankly, and the officer chuckled. "It's dull, monotonous work, son, and can wear a man down to a nub. I don't recommend it. Even if I never make detective, I'm better off than my old man was or will ever be."

"Weird. I'da figured he'd want better for you than what he had."

"So you would think, but it doesn't always play out that way. Some do, of course. Others want to make their children into younger versions of themselves in any and all respects, and they get really bent out-of-shape when it doesn't work out that way. Of course, this forever-recession the country seems to be in isn't helping either case. No guarantees of work anymore like there used to be. When my dad got laid off at age fifty-four, the argument between us died, but the scars are still there, and that I'm working and he's not just rubs salt in the old wounds... Damn the kami for stubborn old men!"

The officer sighed heavily, sipped his tea, and propped his feet up on his desk while looking across the room, half lost in thought. Ranma felt the statement about younger versions of themselves had a lot of bearing on his situation—it was a given that Genma wanted him to follow in his footsteps, but Ranma wasn't entirely sure what that would mean for his life, and Genma had never even broached the topic. Would he be the same as his pop was now in twenty years? Contrary to his actions in the jail corridor, he did love his pop, but the idea of him being another Genma gave no comfort and twisted his stomach slightly.

"Parents are funny things, son," the officer went on, breaking into Ranma's introspection. "I've got a seven year old boy and a three year old girl, and I'm always wondering whether I'm doing a better job than my dad did, but I guess I do all right. You see the whole range of parenting, from horrible to wonderful, in this job, and it gives you a lot of perspective on your own life."

"Yeah, I guess I can see that."

The two men fell quiet again, enjoying their tea and listening to the distant bustle of the busier parts of the police station. Occasionally, some man or occasionally a woman would be loud and complaining, their voices cutting above the din. Ranma finished his tea and set his mug on the table.

The officer looked at him questioningly, as a sudden thought occurred to him. "Shouldn't you have been in school today, son?"

"Nah. We just got back from trainin' in China." Ranma began to scowl heavily. Something about China was an obvious source of aggravation, the policeman noticed. "We been makin' our way here on foot for the last two weeks, hitchin' rides and stuff. Pops has been dyin' ta get ta Nerima, but he won't say why." The scowl intensified. "Which always means it's somethin' not good for me when he won't say." He shook his head. "'Sides, got no money for school things. Can barely eat right now."

"What does your mother think of all this?" the officer asked with a serious tone. "Or is she even in the picture any more?"

Ranma froze and then blinked twice. "Uh... I dunno."

"Why not?"

He shrugged, although his expression was still distant. "Pops never talks about her. I think she may be dead 'r somethin'. I kinda remember some really foggy stuff about a lady, but I was like, uh, six when we left, and we ain't been back since."

"_Never_ talks about her?" he asked, incredulous.

Shaking his head, Ranma said, "Not a peep."

"What's her name?"

"Uh... ..."

"You don't know your own mother's _name?!_"

Ranma just stared at the angry policeman, uncertain of what to say. The officer yanked his feet off the desk, scooted his chair forward, and picked up his phone and dialed an extension.

"Shiro-kun! It's Hiroshi down at the jail. Say, can you get on the department web and do a little looking for me on the sly? ... No, nothing illegal; just not really pertaining to any ongoing case. I've got a kid down here whose dad is marking time in a cell for a few weeks, and come to find out, the dad has never told him anything about his mother. The whole thing sounds fishy as hell. ... Saotome Genma. Son is..." He turned to the boy. "Your name?"

"Ranma."

"Son is Saotome Ranma. ... Yeah, I'll pour some more tea down him and maybe buy him some lunch off the cart. Yeah, I'll see that he sticks around for a bit. ... Yeah, thanks, Shiro-kun. I owe you one. ... Yeah, any of the seven-eight extensions. Since we've only got one 'guest' at the moment, I'm the only stiff down here. Right. Thanks." He hung up, and turned to Ranma. "Got anywhere you have to be for a little while?"

Now oddly nervous and apprehensive, Ranma just shook his head rapidly.

- - -

Two cups of tea, a couple of curry sandwiches, and Ranma left the precinct house with a name and address on a slip of paper. He wobbled down the road towards the shopping district, thinking on Officer Hiroshi's parting words.

"Son, I can't tell you what to do. I don't know what's gone on between your folks or where your mother and father stand with each other. What I do know is that parents generally love their children no matter what, and I would be very surprised if your mother wouldn't want to see you."

Hiroshi had put a hand on his shoulder and had smiled at him kindly. "Another thing I know... One of the hardest lessons a child has to learn in life is that his parents are just people. They're not superhuman. They're flawed, and they make mistakes. And sometimes... sometimes, they are just downright wrong about some things. The trick for us kids is learning to know the difference between being disrespectful and knowing when it's necessary or important to point out to them that they're wrong. So listen to what your mother has to say about how things are between her and your father. There may be reasons involved that would never have or could never have occurred to you. Understand?"

Still pondering all he'd learned, Ranma arrived at the mall of the shopping district and sat down on the first bench he found unoccupied. He then proceeded to stare into space, the piece of paper in his hand fluttering in the light breeze. His introspection lasted uninterrupted for only ten minutes.

"Hi, Ranma-kun."

He blinked several times, allowing his mind to return to the moment in some small measure, and then turned and looked up into a face he'd thought to never see again. He just looked at the young woman blankly.

"Ranma-kun?" Nabiki waved a hand in front of his face. "Are you all right?"

Ranma opened his mouth, shut it, opened it again, and then seemed to get hung up in his thoughts.

Nabiki reached out and tentatively touched him on the shoulder. "Ranma-kun?"

"I... ... ..."

"Yes? You what?"

At a complete loss for words, he simply handed her the piece of paper he'd been holding. Confused, Nabiki took it and read aloud: "Saotome Nodoka, 138 Arisugawa, Oizumi-cho, Nerima-ku." She looked back at him. "I don't understand. Is this your house? Who is this Nodoka?"

"I... I didn't _know!_ He never _said!_"

Nabiki tilted her head, studying him.

"I... I have... a mother."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

END CHAPTER THREE

Thanks to Rakhal Stormwarden for some spot pre-reading and canonical assessment duties and LatinD for an eleventh-hour grammar check.

A Brief Discussion of Japanese Municipality as Applied to _Ranma ½_

**NOTE: Some of the following information has been contested, and I will be reviewing this information and posting a corrected revision at a later date. Thanks to those who have written in on this matter.**

The structure of Japanese municipalities is not nearly as consistent as that found in, say, the United States, and it has a lot to do with some patchy restructuring during the Second World War and, probably, not a little to do with substantially more history than we can claim here in the US—more time breeds more irregularity. I would invite you to surf Wikipedia for a fairly good discussion of Japanese municipal structure.

For the purposes of _Ranma ½_, what you need to know is that it takes place in:  
1. Japan  
2. Kantou Region-there are 8 Regions in Japan  
3. Tokyo Prefecture (_Tokyo-to_)-there are 47 Prefectures in Japan  
4. Nerima Ward (_Nerima-ku_)-there are 23 wards in Tokyo, although in _Tokyo-to_ they are called "special wards".  
5. Furinkan City (_Furinkan-cho_), which exists only in _Ranma ½_. There are three actual _cho_ in _Nerima-ku_, those being _Nerima-cho_, _Oizumi-cho_, and _Hikarigaoka-cho_.

The Japanese municipal system doesn't line up well with what we Americans are used to, but very roughly speaking, a region would be something on the order of a large area of the US, like West Coast, South, or Midwest, a prefecture like a state, a ward like a county, and a _cho_ like a city. This is a very weak comparison, especially when you consider the fact that the "state" of Tokyo is mostly nothing but solid metropolis, but from an organizational standpoint it's functional enough to be going on with.

And just to air out two of my pet nits in _Ranma ½—Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon_ crossovers, first, Juuban does not exist, per se, but as it is often used in fanfic, it is not a ward but rather a city or _cho_ of the Minato Ward, and it's correct, real-world name is _Azabu-cho_. _Azabu-Juuban_ is the name of a train station there, and it may also be an appellation given to a set of schools, as well, but I cannot confirm that at this time. If anyone has further information on the "Juuban" matter, I'd be happy to hear from you and review your sources.

Second, the Minato and Nerima wards are not adjacent; the Nakano, Shinjuku, and Shibuya Wards separate them, although not in a straight line. This means that Ranma cannot just step over a border from Nerima into "Juuban", as he is found to so often do in fanfic—there's a fair bit of train ride involved. :)

And no, this is not a hint that _Falling to Earth_ is crossing over into _Sailor Moon_. Got enough of that on my plate with _Hime_. :)

- - -

_Ranma ½:_, its characters, and its situations are the property of Takahashi Rumiko, Shonen Sunday Comics, Shogakukan, Kitty TV, and Fuji in Japan. It is distributed in North America by Viz Communications, Inc.


	4. Chakudan, Part Two

**_Falling to Earth_**

A _Ranma ½_ Fanfiction  
by  
Sinom Bre

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Chapter Four

_Chakudan  
(Impact)_

_Part Two_

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Oh, pardon me!" Nabiki bowed to a middle-aged woman that she'd bumped into during her third canvass of the Nerima shopping district. _Snap out of it, Nabiki!_ she chastised herself. _Your mind is all over the place, and now you're stumbling into people!_ The other woman tilted her head slightly, looked down her nose at Nabiki with an annoyed twist to her mouth and then stalked away without truly acknowledging the apology. Nabiki sighed. It wasn't as if she'd knocked the stuck-up old bint into a puddle of muddy water or anything; just a simple bumping of shoulders.

Dropping that line of thinking as not worth her time, she looked up and down the mall with a mild sense of despair. _Face it; your chances of running into him at any given time are only a hair better than nil._ She spied one of the many small eateries on the mall, one near the entrance where she happened to be when bumping into the other woman. She grabbed a waitress on the way into the seating area, ordered a milk tea, and took a chair at one of the empty tables situated such that she could easily see the people coming and going on the mall. It also gave her a chance to breathe and reflect on recent upsets.

First and foremost, at the moment, was the matter of Ranma-kun. Kasumi had hit most of the nails on the head during their little talk after dinner earlier, but she'd hit some of them with only glancing blows. Yes, it was true that she hadn't given Ranma-kun a fair shake at their last meeting, but that wasn't all that had bothered her afterwards. It was as if what she'd learned of his life and the things he'd had to do to get along had been unexpected enough to cause her to reflect on her own life and who she was. She'd been far from unsatisfied with what she found, but she'd been dismayed by one thing that had gone largely unnoticed, and her reaction to Ranma's revelations had brought it into stark relief. Was she truly that insulated from other people? She hadn't thought so. There was Kasumi and, to a lesser extent, Akane and her father, and... and...

And there it was. That really was all. There were two or three girls she nominally called friends from Furinkan, but at school and very occasionally after school at ice-cream shops or at some interesting local event were the only times she spent with them. Come to think of it, she could not remember any recent instances when any of them had called her at home just to chat and gossip. She winced, realizing that she had been the only one to call them outside of the aforementioned venues, but even then, it was rare.

Her milk tea arrived, and Nabiki smiled and thanked the waitress. She sampled it, distantly cataloging that the beverage was barely fit for consumption, but the she drank it anyway.

_You need to change some things, Nabiki-chan. Yuka and Sayuri might as well be Akane's sisters, as close as they are. Kasumi has her tea club every Tuesday, but she regularly speaks and meets with them outside of that... and she could have Toufuu-sensei if he ever gets his act together. And Daddy..._ She wasn't sure who or what her father had besides his daughters, but his was a different situation altogether from being a generation older and raised with different expectations. Thoughts of friends triggered a strong memory of basking in the female Ranma's glow when she would laugh or make amusing attempts at being coy or sly in their conversation. Nabiki realized she wanted more of that feeling.

And then there was that other matter...

Ever since her rescue, she and her sisters had been conversationally dancing around and avoiding what had happened, and when Kasumi had stumbled in her speaking earlier, avoiding it yet again, an uncomfortable twinge had developed in Nabiki's stomach. She'd clamped down on it immediately, but it hadn't gone away. It was like a distant wail, slowly growing stronger and clearer, trying to develop into a writhing knot of screaming anxiety despite her iron control. She shuddered...

... and almost jumped out of her skin when a noise made her look up quickly and see Ranma walk by not three meters from her, having bumped into one of the chairs at an outer table and stumbling as if drunk. She watched him move aimlessly down the mall until he was quickly lost in the crowd. Shaking herself out of her stupor, she dropped a pair of one hundred-yen coins on the table and left. Regardless of whatever the stated price might have been, that poor excuse for milk tea hadn't been worth a quarter of that. She scurried in the same direction as her quarry, the climbing wail coming to a boil in her belly momentarily forgotten.

She found him quickly on a bench not at all far from where she'd lost sight of him from the eatery. Two large bushes flanked the bench, lending a false sense of seclusion, and Ranma sat dead in the middle, staring off into space. She did take note of something new about him, a slip of paper held tightly in his right hand and fluttering in the occasional breeze, but she dismissed it as unimportant. She steeled herself, _A fair shake, remember?_ and walked up to him.

"Hi, Ranma-kun!" Nabiki smiled brightly for him. It felt patently unnatural to do so, but she persevered, only to have the smile fail anyway when, after a long pause, he looked up at her with blank eyes.

"Ranma-kun?" She waved a hand in front of his face. "Are you all right?"

He opened his mouth, shut it, opened it again, and then he just froze, as if his brain had locked up.

Nabiki reached out and tentatively touched him on the shoulder. "Ranma-kun?"

"I... ... ..."

"Yes? You what?"

No response at all save that same blank look. After another stretch of uncomfortable silence, he simply handed her the piece of paper she'd noticed he'd been holding. Confused, Nabiki took it and read aloud: "Saotome Nodoka, 138 Arisugawa, Oizumi-machi, Nerima-ku." She looked back at him. "I don't understand. Is this your house? Who is this Nodoka?"

"I... I didn't _know!_ He never _said!_"

Nabiki tilted her head, studying him.

He finally uttered that which had him in a daze. "I... I have... a mother."

It didn't take her but an instant to take in the important aspects of the situation. He hadn't known about his mother for most of his life... and _now_ he did. Ye, gods! She was at a total loss for a reasonable response that didn't flow from her natural sarcastic impulse to ooze some comment along the lines of _"Well, of course you do! Your father certainly didn't squeeze you out of his—"_

Nabiki's mind crashed to a halt, and she felt more than a bit of disgust at where that thought had been heading and was glad she'd chopped it off before it could finish. For lack of any better options at the moment, she looked back down at the slip of paper, memorizing the information, before folding it and slipping it into her purse for temporary safekeeping. She moved, hesitated, and then tentatively sat down next to Ranma, watching him as he stared off into space again.

_What in the world do you say to someone in his position?_ she wondered, looking away and then doing a double-take. He was male! Why was it just now that she'd processed that fact?! It struck Nabiki like a runaway truck how complicated just _thinking_ about Ranma would be, not that she shouldn't have recognized this already considering how much trouble she'd had with Ranma pronouns earlier when meeting with her sisters. She'd also been unconsciously thinking of Ranma as a girl in many of her musings, since he'd _been_ a girl at their last meeting. One of the biggest aspects, if not _the_ biggest, that dictated how people interacted with one another was that of gender. Ranma kicked that fundamental rule right in the fundament and waved goodbye as it flew out of sight. Oh, my, this was going to be difficult in so many ways. Nabiki paused; perhaps not. Ranma was born male and acted largely male even when a girl, and the only time he seemed not to was when it was a conscious decision, like when scamming food. _Right. Male it is, even when it isn't... Kami, how am I going to remember that when he's not?_

She set that aside for the moment and asked what she now realized was the only question on the table. "What are you going to do?"

Ranma slowly turned to her, his eyes darting back and forth. "Do?!" he warbled. "I... I dunno." His eyes sharpened marginally, as they focused at least somewhat on her. "What do you think I should do?"

"Errr..." she dithered. "Well, I... I mean, is there really any decision to make? Is there some reason you _don't_ want to meet her? She _is_ your mother, after all. Why wouldn't she want to meet you?"

"Yeah... That's what Officer Hiroshi said..."

"A policeman? What was that all about?"

"Oh! Uh... I dunno. It just sorta happened. I went to see Pops earlier, and we... had some problems... and some words. I got mad and left and somehow'r other the cop that worked the jail and me had a talk. Dunno how it got around to mom, but he did a little diggin' and... well... found out who she was and where she lived."

"The paper?"

"Yeah... HEY! Where'd it go? AH! I can't lose that!" He searched around himself on the bench and ground frantically.

"Relax, Ranma-kun! I just put it in my purse, so it wouldn't blow away."

"... Oh... Whew! Thanks, Nabiki-cha—" He stopped abruptly and finally focused his full attention on her, although his eyes were now shuttered and suspicious again. "Uh... What are ya doin' here, anyway? I, uh, thought you... well..."

Nabiki sighed. Gad. Here it came. How the hell was she supposed to talk about this and not sound like a total boob. She pulled her eyes off of Ranma and picked at the hem of the black knee-length skirt she wore, as it rode just above her knees when seated. Her legs were nice, she thought, perhaps her nicest feature short of her chest, which thanks to the Tendou genes was ample, perhaps even a half-size larger than Kasumi's despite her older sister's taller frame, but it'd been ages since they played those kind of bust games as younger girls. Only Akane seemed to have been passed over by that inheritance, although her chest wasn't small but merely average. Nabiki hated her face, however. She thought it looked weird. Some people called it exotic because of how her eyes sat relative to the rest of her features, but she thought it was just... weird. She then remembered that Ranma had thought her pretty the last time they met. A warm glow settled in her chest. Pretty was not a compliment she often got. Striking, sometimes, and chesty often, but pretty? Hardly... Except Ranma.

She giggled aloud, causing Ranma to lean back, blink, and look at her strangely. Mortified, Nabiki felt like slapping herself silly. What the hell was going on with her?! Had falling off of that building rattled her insides so much that she could wander off in the middle of an important conversation? But finally voicing that fact in her mind brought her up short.

She had fallen off of a building...

Fell—off—a—_six_-story—_building!_

This was _not_ the same thing as catching herself before crossing a busy road! She'd been well on her final way to being a smear on the sidewalk, no rational hope of avoidance, and by all rights, that's exactly what _should_ have happened. Instead, the very kami she'd just cursed had seen fit to provide her with the rarest of persons capable of giving her another chance to live.

The roiling, boiling wail in her gut suddenly found itself unbound.

Her thoughts began to spin out of her control, and Kasumi's words echoed like a tolling bell in her head, making her dizzy and her legs feel like jelly: _"...but for the absurdly good fortune of having someone capable of saving you from such a fall at the right place at the right time, we would now be planning a funeral."_ Absurd was right. Grandly absurd. _"...but for the absurdly good fortune..."_ _Outrageously_ absurd! She should be dead, buried, and feeding the worms! _"...we would now be planning a funeral."_ Dead. _Dead!_ **DEAD!**

The wail roared.

As her thoughts fed her emotions and her emotions her thoughts in vicious and growing spiral, Nabiki began to shake uncontrollably. The post-adrenalin shock immediately after the fall had been one thing, but the deeper, emotional shock of almost having died had been completely derailed by a second event containing a different kind of shock, that of watching a good-looking boy turn into a redheaded girl in a mad display of impossibility. She had, afterwards, been coasting on a survival high and the high of finding something novel in the world, not yet dealing with what could have happened to her—what _should_ have happened to her—and not yet coping with the emotional earthquake that had only been delayed. Delayed, yes, but it had definitely not forgotten her, and her rosy emotions from a few seconds ago had loosened up her heart and mind enough for the bigger issue to come rolling out like thunder: she should be... should be... DEAD!

Panic exploded in her chest and her heart pounded in her ears.  
_DEAD!_  
She needed Kasumi! She looked around frantically—no Kasumi.  
_DEAD!_  
She needed her mother!! "Mother!" she croaked, still shaking severely, tears rolling down her cheeks, but there was no mother. There had not been for most of her life.  
_DEAD!_  
Tendou Nabiki had been proud of how she'd held up. She needed no one! _No one!_  
_DEAD!_  
"Oh, Mother, where _are_ you?!" she hoarsely begged the descending darkness of the shopping district. The other shoppers on the mall had been reduced to misty gray phantoms of no comfort to her at all.  
_DEAD!_  
The old pain of her mother's death was born anew, further fueling the hysteria that overwhelmed her.  
_DEAD!_

And then her frantic, watery, and agonized gaze locked onto the stunned Ranma seated next to her, who gaped at her with his own brand of panic reflected in his cerulean eyes.

"Are... Are you _okay?!_" he practically squawked, fidgeting and looking ready to bolt.

Once image chased another, as if linked in a relentless chain. The memory of the ice cream she'd taken from Akane that had come out of nowhere as she fell burst into her mind. The memory of her mother, dying in the hospital, and her fear that no one else would want her, would love her. _Don't leave me, Mother!_  
_DEAD!_  
An impact against her body, and a strange male voice, saying something she couldn't quite recall but found comforting nonetheless.  
_NOT... dead?_  
She clung to her memory of her clinging to him, as he ran them at a slant down the building. Something had been jarred loose in her during that fall, something that the boy sitting next to her had caught along with her.  
_Alive?_  
Needs and wants, long repressed from one death, had crawled out again at the proximity of her own demise, and now they rose from where they'd been resting since her fall and seemed to overlay and fuse on the face in front of her, temporarily imbuing him in her mind with an overwhelming sense of safety.  
_ALIVE!_

Reaching out with shaking hands, Nabiki tightly gripped a stunned Ranma's shoulders and then crawled into his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck, buried her face, and began to wail and cry out three days of delayed traumatic stress and years of past due mourning and grief.

- - -

Fortunately for Ranma, the bench upon which he now cradled Nabiki was somewhat out of the way, and it was getting rather late, so the pedestrian traffic was lighter. Ranma, however, was beyond acknowledging any of his surroundings. For the second time in his life and only three days apart, he held the same bawling girl in his lap.

He was stumped.

Completely forgetting about his own concerns, buried as they were by the quivering mass of live girl, he sat there, trying to determine the best attack to this problem. He could, of course, simply dump her on the ground and run like hell, and the part of him that had been taught to deny his softer emotions cheered in their section of the stadium of his mind. Or he could just sit here, wait, and do nothing. The uncertainty in him didn't exactly cheer, as they were, after all, uncertain. Another part of his mind remembered Nabiki's sister Akane standing over them the first time this had happened, motioning at him with her arms to hold Nabiki. Ranma considered the options as presented, especially that proposed by the mini-Akane in his mind's eye. Truthfully, nothing bad had happened as a direct result of the Akane-born solution, the uncertain section remained uncertain, and the deny-soft-emotion section muttered amongst themselves but couldn't truly fault the past results of the first.

Mind made up and actively wondering if he was putting his head in the mouth of the lion, Ranma brought up his arms and cradled the crying girl, and for some bizarre reason his mind couldn't latch on to, one hand started rubbing her back of its own accord. He just really did not understand any of this, but Nabiki seemed to prefer this action, as she relaxed against him somewhat. It still jangled his nerves fiercely to be in this position, and he wished he had someone he could talk to later about whether he'd done the right thing or not and what was generally expected in these situations, but alas, all he had was his Pop, and Genma was more likely to tell him to not worry about it or immediately find something to occupy his attention so he could pretend he hadn't heard the question at all. What he really needed was a...

A mother!

He was so surprised that he'd forgotten about his mother, he almost leapt to his feet and dumped Nabiki onto the ground. His muscles had tensed severely anyway, and it seemed Nabiki had noticed. Her cries quieted, and she pulled her face away from his neck. He peeked at her out of the corner of his eye, but she seemed to just be staring dully at nothing.

"Um..." he tentatively began, but further words failed him, as they often did.

Nabiki looked up at his face, and her eyes focused abruptly. She looked quickly at her position, back at his face, and then all around them. She scrabbled off of him and moved a couple of steps away, turning such that she presented her profile. Her hands rapidly and erratically smoothed her blouse and skirt, and only then did she wipe her eyes.

"I must look a fright," she said, shakily.

"Uh... No?"

Nabiki laughed once, harshly, still not looking at him. "Right. Listen... That, ah... That did _not_ happen just now, understand?" She almost looked at him but forced herself to resist.

"... Errr... If you say so."

"Right... Right..." She looked all around her again, everywhere except at Ranma, continuing to mutter to herself in increasing severity. "I never do that. It did _not_ happen! I won't _have_ it!!" A clock on a pole stood in the middle of the mall near the entrance, and Nabiki looked up at it. "Oh, is _that_ the time?" she quavered.

With Nabiki looking ready to bolt like a frightened hare, Ranma put aside thoughts of his mother for the moment, which was no mean feat, but it was aided by a sense of familiar annoyance that crawled out of a heavily bruised part of his heart. He'd been used many times in his life, and he at least knew the bolder signs, even though he'd hoped that Nabiki would be different. His face adopted the same stoniness that he so hated to see on his own father.

"So..." he said, his mood becoming thoroughly sour. "Now that you've soaked my shirt, you're just gonna run off again?" Ranma stood and shook his arms. "Maybe Pops _is_ right," he grated. "Women sure do seem to be an all-around pain in the ass."

The words and sentiment were unexpected and jarring after what she'd just been through, and Nabiki whirled on him. "What?! How _dare_ you! Where do you get off saying that to _me?!_ I—" She stopped because he'd abruptly held out his hand, palm up. "What?!"

"You have somethin' of mine," he said, coolly, wiggling his fingers a couple of times. When she just looked at him blankly, he said, "The paper? With my, er, mom's address on it?"

"Oh!" And all that had occurred prior to her breakdown came crashing back in. "Oh, no! I... I didn't mean! I mean...!" Cursing herself, the situation, and how everything she'd planned for the possibility of finding Ranma again had gone completely awry, she scrabbled at her purse, yanked out the paper, and slapped it in his hand. She drew back her fingers as if he might burn her, and she winced at her own skittishness.

He didn't immediately pull his arm back but tilted his head slightly, boring into her with his eyes. After a few seconds of appraisal, under which Nabiki did manage to stare right back, Ranma shook his head once in apparent confusion and then walked off towards the entrance without a word. He managed to leave the shopping district and traverse half of a block down the road towards the park before he heard whom he assumed to be Nabiki, running up behind him. He stopped, turned, and stonily regarded her, as she suddenly stopped two meters away from him as if she'd hit a wall.

"What do you _want_ from me, Tendou-san?" Ranma asked, although it came out rather meaner than he intended. He struggled with his emotions and rubbed the back of his head. "I mean... You sounded pretty clear to me when ya left the other day..." He remembered some of her other words. "Sure, I didn't spend much time in school, but I ain't..." He winced. "I am not totally... ignorant. I know..." He worked his mouth a couple of times. "I know when I don't measure up ta someone's, um... expectations?" He tilted his head again and then nodded to himself once. "Yeah, that's it. You made that pretty clear. And then..." He gestured uncertainly. "...all this cryin' and stuff..." Ranma dropped his arm and sighed, looking defeated. "What do you _want_, Tendou-san? If I'm just a bit'a fun or somethin' for ya today, at least just _say_ that... so I'll know." Defeated and dejected, now.

He could see a number of emotions pass over Nabiki's face during his speech, but when moisture pricked in her eyes again, he flapped his arms a couple of times. "Crap! What is it with girls and cryin' all the damned time?!" he practically shouted.

A giggle impulsively escaped her at his antics, and she slapped a hand over her mouth in embarrassment. However, it brought a quick chuckle out of Ranma, followed by a hand raking through his hair. "I really don't get girls at _all_..." he muttered audibly.

"Ranma-kun," Nabiki said, having regained some measure of her composure, "I..."

At her pause, he watched her fight with herself and thought he heard her mutter something about a Kasumi, but he didn't know who that was. It was not a little fascinating to watch, but he really was getting tired of the ups and downs surrounding this girl. "Yeah?"

Nabiki sighed, and her shoulders slumped from her own measure of defeat. "Truth it is," she said to herself and looked up and caught him with her large brown eyes. "I came looking for you today because... because I felt I owed you an apology." Ranma's eyebrows disappeared into his bangs, but she continued. "You were right. I judged you the other day, and I... I shouldn't have. I don't have the slightest idea what your life has been like, and I made a snap judgment that... that I didn't want any part of that."

He said nothing, and stood there, arms hanging loosely at his side, although he continued to watch her, feeling cautious even yet.

"I... I don't know what else to say... really... Sorry?"

There was something about her expression, posture, and attitude that suggested that there was, indeed, more that she could say but for some reason did not. Eyeing her for a few more seconds, he nodded slowly. "Yeah... Thanks... But... You're probably right, ya know, to not want any part of... me. You're... That is..." He gestured at her. "I mean, look at ya! You're, well... You're normal. Ya get up in the mornin', go ta school, come home, and do it all over again."

He jabbed a thumb at his chest. "Me? I fight nearly ever' day, and go to weird places and... get a weird curse." He had a rare moment of conceptual-to-verbal clarity. "Truth is I'm a lot like the weird guy ya see on the tee-vee in them kung-fu movies. Not the kinda guy ya hang out with like, uh... like on dates and stuff, not that I've ever been on a date, but..." He backhanded the air, and shook his head once, forcefully. "That's not important and none of anybody's business. What _is_ important to _you_ is that Weird, Weird in flamin' ten-meter kanji, follows me around like a damn bored kami! Messin' with me ever' chance it gets just for the hell of it!

"And yeah, and there's a little nasty stuff, too. Ya know... thievin' when I have ta." He turned a little and gave her his profile this time. "It hurts ta say it, but you're right. We got nothin' in common, Tendou-san." He laughed bitterly. "Nothin' at all. I mean, I only told ya the littlest _bit_ of stuff. For instance, after gettin' this girl curse, I had a match with a Chinese girl in a little village close by and beat her inside three seconds with one kick to the chin, and she got mad, gave me a kiss on the cheek goodbye, and then chased me all the way to the goddamn ocean tryin' ta take off my head with a goddamn _sword!_ No bullshit about it!" He looked back at her sharply. "What _part_ of that do ya really want?!"

He threw his arms up in the air, waving them around in frustration. "Hell! I don't know how much of it _I_ want. And now that I _think_ on it," he dropped one arm but held up the slip of paper in the other, "I don't know if I want ta even bring a mom I never met in on it! Yeah, I reckon my mom wants to see me—I can't really see how it couldn't be that way unless she ends up bein' just _another_ weird thing in my life—but do I want to drag _her_ in the way of all that?! I don't know! I just... don't know..." Trailing off, he let his hand holding his mother's address fall to his side, and he stared out into the darkness, his eyes flicking back and forth, searching.

After almost a full minute of silence between them, Ranma turned to Nabiki. "Thanks for the apology, Tendou-san. It... was nice ta hear, even if nothin' comes from it, but... Go home. I ain't got nothin' ya want. Go home and be, well... happy... and safe. I got nothin' ya want."

Before she could even consider a response, he leapt to the roof of the building beside them and disappeared. As he roof-hopped his way to the park, he ignored his wet cheeks.

"I ain't got nothin' she wants any part of... Nothin'..."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Morning dawned bright but hazy and humid, and Ranma had been up with the birds, working through his morning regimen of kata, purposefully keeping his mind clear of any thoughts concerning events or persons from the previous evening. He sorely missed having a sparring partner, but he was stuck until his Pop served out his term, but he didn't really want to think about his Pop, either. After finishing his exercise, he stopped to look at his camp. Would he be coming back here? He didn't know, but perhaps it would be best to be prepared for the possibility, so he completely broke camp and fixed his pack. Lifting it onto one shoulder, he bounded out to a cobbled walking lane and trotted towards the east entrance to the park.

As he turned the last corner of the lane, he could see the line of concrete pillars that kept vehicles from driving into the park from the street through the entrance, and he spied a familiar figure sitting on one of the pillars, watching everyone who went in or out. He ground to a halt, sighed loudly, and couldn't decide whether he was pleased or irritated to see her. He circled widely around, giving himself time to further decide whether to talk to her or just jump the fence and skip her brand of messy altogether, but in the end for reasons he was unwilling to examine too deeply at the moment, he didn't feel inclined to avoid her, so he walked right up to her blind side.

"Tendou-san," he said, causing her to jump off the pillar and squeak, "what are ya doin' here?"

Nabiki scowled at him briefly for startling her. "What? It's a free country! ... More or less."

Ranma rolled his eyes. "That's _not_ what I meant. I thought we settled this last night, so... what are ya doin' here?"

Ignoring his question, she countered with her own. "Going to meet your mom, Ranma-kun?"

He narrowed his eyes. "And if I am?"

"Weeell..." she drawled, acting now as if she were entirely in control of the situation between the two of them, "I would never _dream_ of imposing—" She smiled at him brightly, and the flutter in his chest disturbed him. "—but if I'm not, could you use some company along the way?" She now gave him a sly smile from a three-quarter view of her face with eyes slightly lidded.

Ranma felt a whole other series of reactions from her new expression that further disturbed him, although it was far more thrilling to certain places on his person, and Nabiki seemed to know it, as evidenced by her sultry, throaty chuckle. His Pop's voice echoed in his head with the usual admonishments about women, and while he now suspected some truth in Genma's warnings, the reasons were new, strange, and surprisingly pleasant.

He palmed his face nevertheless. "I don't understand you. I don't think I'll _ever_ understand you."

"Well, you should know by now, Ranma-kun," she cooed, looping her arm through his, opposite his pack, and pulling him out through the park entrance, "that's _just_ how I like it..."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

END CHAPTER FOUR

Nabiki is, to my mind, nothing if not quintessentially mercurial...

- - - - -

Thanks to Rakhal Stormwarden for some spot pre-reading.

_Ranma ½_, its characters, and its situations are the property of Takahashi Rumiko, Shonen Sunday Comics, Shogakukan, Kitty TV, and Fuji in Japan. It is distributed in North America by Viz Communications, Inc.

Nota bene: There will be some corrections to the little article I included in the last chapter on Japanese municipalities, to be included in a future chapter of _Falling to Earth_.

Author's Note: I debated two main ways of proceeding from here. One was as done, where Nabiki invites herself along to see Nodoka. The second was to have Nabiki go home and stay home, and then Nodoka would bring Ranma along to the doujou and, surprise, Ranma meets Nabiki as a potential fiancé(e). However, the sheer difficulty of trying to pull off the second option killed it rather quickly, primarily because keeping them both ignorant of each other within the context of the engagement until they meet again is just too implausible, given all that has gone before. Ergo, Nabiki gets to tag along, which is fine and should prove just as interesting.

We shall finally meet our most beloved and honored Nodoka in the next chapter, _Chakudan, Part Three_, although I expect that chapter to take somewhat longer to plan out and write—the interplay between three people increases the complication geometrically.

Nabiki-chan says, "Otanoshimi ni ne?" — _Please look forward to it, okay?_ for you weeaboo haters out there. Kill the dubz! Watch more subz!


End file.
